Description

High quality, fun climbing, with a nice variety of movement!

Climb past 2 bolts to the left-rising trough, where you can place a #3 Camalot. Continue up the trough until it peters out, where you can place a solid #5 stopper. Face climb up to the horizontal crack, then gear the crack as you move left, until you can clip a bolt that protects the step across onto the big face above.

Traverse left another 10' where you can clip the bolt at the base of the crux. A few moves of steep, thin, face climbing will get you to the knobby face above.

Fun, easy climbing on big knobs and crystals takes you to the base of the summit overlap. Clip the last bolt and pull through to the belay/rappel anchors, which are shared with Sidearm.

The route name commemorates the fiasco of the (last) Hill City Shootout on June 17th, 2011, when one of the Dakota Wild Bunch re-enactors had live rounds in his pistol! I just happened to drive through town as the wounded were being loaded into ambulances.

Location

Hill City Shootout starts directly below the route Sidearm, and starts off the ground instead of up the easy gully as for Sidearm and Crystal Ship.

Walk about 20-25 feet past Teachers Pet and take a hard right to the wall where you'll easily spot the first two bolts.

When rappelling the route, a single 60 meter roupe will NOT get you down to where you started. Unless you use 2 ropes, you must rappel the Sidearm route down and right into the gully, where you can pull your rope and easily scramble down to the ground.

Protection

Mostly a sport route, but you'll need a little gear. Protection is a mix of 13 bolts, a #5 stopper and Camalots from .4 to 3.

We rappelled the route off the Side Arm anchors and made it in one 60 m rope. The ends come just a foot or so short of making it to the ground with rope stretch. At least they did when we climbed it...don't quote us...but we did make it with a single 60 m rope. Good route! Good gear available on the long rising ramp before clipping the first bolt on the upper face. The crux is hard and thin!